Will the XBOX 360 Successor Simply be Named 'XBOX'?

Joel Taveras writes, "If you’re familiar with the going ons at Microsoft, then I’m sure you’ve heard a little something about Windows 8. It’s a new direction for the company and something that Microsoft hopes will bring true convergence to their products and services across every category. The Xbox brand is playing a major role in this company-wide transformation, and I think that a minor (unannounced) update made on their Windows Phone platform today may revel some small yet significant info about the Xbox brand moving forward."

It will be XBOX ______ (insert something). Microsoft has too much invested in xbox.com as far as players being able to access their accounts and make purchases. Also, XBOX is not just a name, it's a brand which they make a lot of money on. They will not take a chance with a billion dollar brand by naming it something stupid.

Because of the Vita. They could have easily called it PSP 2 and keep the tradition, but they chose not to. The same will happen with the PS4. There is no way they will call it PS4, because of marketing strategy.

Also, if MS names the next Xbox with some number, like Xbox 8, it would make the PS4 "lesser". That's the same reason MS didn't name the Xbox 360, Xbox 2.

I'm in agreement that game companies are dropping numbers unless they have symbolic quality, in which most don't.

I can see an 'Xbox 8' but using it as the symbol for infinite. Sony will not release a PS4. That's an easy bet. They need to release a catchy name (like 'Wii') where it just becomes that, rather than a PS 'something.' Everyone knows the PS brand. But a catchy hip name will do wonders like it did for Nintendo.

There will be a PlayStation 4. The home console brand is plenty strong and well known enough to overcome any 3rd grade "OMG 8's bigger than 4" talk.

You mention the Vita deviating for the traditional naming scheme. And how exactly did that work out for the Vita?

Did Vita work better than PSP2 vs. the 3DS? Nope. It (the Vita) is still being outsold by the PSP and being destroyed sales-wise by the 3DS.

Vita getting destroyed by a 3. Wii beat out two 3s hardware sales-wise. And you draw a solid conclusion that they 'need' to go with a name instead of a number from the real world examples showing both completely opposite ends of the spectrum?

I don't think Sony is dumb enough to not call their next console the PlayStation 4 (PS4).

People want a PS4. They'll be looking and googling for a PS4. Nobody knows what the heck an Orbis is or any other name. They'd have to waste a ton of time and money to get the name recognition that PlayStation 4 already has.

PlayStation 4 makes PS5, PS6, PS7, etc. stronger and stronger in name recognition from the start.

I wouldn't be surprised if the simply called it kinect 2, since kinect is a strong name with casuals since microsoft has clearly been trying to get them on board. Is it the best name? No, but i could see where it would make sense in microsoft's mind

XBOX (Like, market it "The all new XBOX" like the iPad) XBOX 8/Infinity (Use either the infinity symbol, or spell it out simple as that) xBOX (the small x will be in Itallics to indicate a variable, thus promoting it as an "xBOX" that can do anything entertainment (Game Box, Cable Box, Skype Box, Netflix Box, DVD Box, etc.)

Or something that has to do with Kinect to market it better aroumd the world. Because I think Microsoft didn't too well in Japan because the original XBOX logo and start-up represented a green, nuclear-like bomb, which could trace back to WWII:

The leaked factual Microsoft documents called it the Xbox 720, I highly doubt they would call it Xbox 8 because that is confusing and Windows 9 would be out before the end of the lifecycle of the console.

If you're talking about the Ps2 being the first to just add a simple number to its successor than that is correct. Personally, I think that's just plain lazy. Ps1, Ps2, Ps3, Ps4, etc... That is boring. How about some imagination and creativity? Genesis, Saturn, and Dreamcast were all awesome and imaginative names.

Xbox 1080 is a likely candidate. They can't go with 720 because they'll likely want to show off the fact that it can do 1080p games and 720 would be confusing to mom and pop customers, so if they were to go with any increases in degrees, 1080 is the logical choice